Monthly Archives: July 2015

Voyage to Venus (originally published as Perelandra) is the second book in C.S. Lewis’ Cosmic Trilogy. Compared to the other two in the trilogy, this one best fits the mold of a ‘proper’ allegory. Ransom’s journey to Perelandra (known to us as the planet Venus), his subsequent enmity with the creature animating the body of his old rival, Weston, and their fight to either preserve (in Ransom’s case) or corrupt (in ‘Weston’s’) the integrity of the Green Lady, (Queen of Perelandra) during the absence of her husband the King is clearly tied to the struggle outlined in the Biblical book of Genesis between Eve and the Serpent. However, in this book, the idea is that the people of Earth (or Thulcandra) fell to the powers of the Evil One, but on Perelandra another planet’s Mother is given a chance at succeeding against temptation where she of Earth did not, as well as the results of that success. The idea carries through with a great deal of philosophical and theological dialogue back and forth. The dialogue between Ransom and the Evil One reads almost like a treatise in conversational form, and that between the King and Queen of Perelandra, the god Mars, the goddess Venus, and Ransom is clearly rooted in the tradition of Greek chorus. With its dense content and fine print, this book is a more difficult one to get through. It is not a light read. It is a fine piece of intellectual science fiction, especially for those interested in allegory or classical themes, but those looking for a novel will be searching in the wrong place. The next book in this trilogy, That Hideous Strength, is my favourite of the three, however, as it is allegorical like the first two, but also reads like a fantasy novel. It is easy when reading the third book to remember that this is the same man who gave the world The Chronicles of Narnia. The first two books in this trilogy, however, are more reminiscent of the Mere Christianity and The Great Divorce side of Lewis. More character development and description in this second book was nice. I can’t wait to reread the third. 🙂

After posting my lovely Harry Potter fanart t-shirt I’d designed for my Zazzle store, I was kindly informed by Zazzle that since I don’t own the rights to Harry Potter, I can’t post fanart designs of him on items in my store. *sadface*. So, a huge apology to anyone who wanted that shirt, but I must follow the laws of these Muggles or I’ll probably be granted a visit from the Supreme Mugwump himself, and nobody wants to deal with that! SO, I made a different shirt!

This is a tiled image of a painting done by yours truly in 2011 on cheap dollar store canvas with really old tempura paints and terrible OT brushes. AND I LOVE IT. It’s called ‘Fireweed’, because as a kid living in northern Manitoba growing up, there were always a lot of forest fires and there’s this certain beautiful crimson flower that only grows after a fire, and it’s called ‘fireweed’. I was in hospital for some mental health problems when I painted this, and to me it symbolized hope: the hope that even after the flames of whatever terrible thing is destroying your life have died down and all you’re left with are the charred remains of the utter you, a certain kind of life can still grow – the kind of life that can only grow after the death of some of the most important things you hold dear. This painting and this shirt remind me of the fact that we have all gone through terrible things (some are doing so right now) and through it all, there is always hope for life beyond the blaze. It’s available here at daenorestel, my Zazzle shop. A lot of struggle and turmoil and hope and resistance went into this design and I hope you feel that strength when you wear it. Also, a bonus: You can choose any shirt type you like on the website, it doesn’t have to be the flowy crop top. So…yay! That’s it for today. Stay strong and love yourself. Keep reading. Keep hoping. Love you all. ❤ ❤ ❤
– SharaLee